Saturday, December 25, 2010

It's December 25th again, the time of year when suddenly traffic to uke websites starts to skyrocket for no apparent reason.

On an unrelated note, if you've just received a uke on Christmas day and found your way here, then you are exactly why this site exists. My goal is to help make good music easy to play for beginners.

When I got a uke for Christmas 3 years ago, it was one of the best gifts I have ever got in my life. It was a motivator to learn music, a skill I had ruled out for myself years before. It has been great fun, difficult at times, but always rewarding.

So thank whoever got it for you (again), and play often. You might be surprised at what you can learn.

5 Comments:

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

UPDATE 4/7/10: Woodshed over at Ukehunt, blogger and content-creator extraordinaire, just put up a post about 10 common misconceptions (things that might be "bollocks"-- he is British after all) of ukuleles that included a mention of my point below about the win-win-win scenario.

Added my additional thoughts on it at the bottom of this post.

Just got an email from Tim over at Ukeeku, a new site billing itself as "A place to reflect on ukuleles" that said something like:

And I think he is right, readers here will probably appreciate the heads up on a shot at a free uke. All you have to do to enter to win the ukulele is click the link up top and then comment on the post.

Basically, Tim received a free ukulele in exchange for reviewing it. He then decided to pass this along to one of his commenters as a lottery prize for checking out and participating on his blog.

This is a win-win-win, and something I have considered doing with my blog for a while now.

Winner 1: The ukulele company (in this case the makers of the Eleuke Concert CCK100BL-MP3). Even if the review isn't great, it is easily worth the cost of one ukulele for the potential of thousands of hits worth of free advertising from the review post. And honestly, if a blogger received a free ukulele from a company, they will at least be nice in their review.

Winner 2: The Lucky Commenter. Right now (April 6th) there are 127 comments on the page. By the time the contest closes there could be many thousands, but still, you won't find much better odds to get something worth $200 for the price of 1 minute of your commenting time.

Winner 3: Tim of the Ukeeku site. By getting other bloggers (like yours truly) to promote his site, he will increase his traffic and profile. When companies decided whether they want to give someone a free ukulele, the first thing they care about is the site's traffic. It's cyclical, which means there could be more of these freebies to come!

So yeah, this is a win-win-win strategy to increase his traffic, keep his readers happy, and give a uke company some press. I hope he keeps at it.

~oh what the heck, there's also Winner 4: Bloggers like Ukulala, whose mundane existence is broken up only by an odd interest in successful cooperative survival strategies.

As a reader, I’m am very bored of ukulele competitions. There’s no real value to them in the long term. I’m never much interested in entering a competition where there’s a prize I could just buy if I wanted.

From the blogging perspective, competitions might provide a nice boost in traffic for a few days but they aren’t a substitute for putting in the hard work and building a site worth visiting.

I'm going to agree with Woodshed -- to a point. I think free giveaways are boring but serve the purpose of driving traffic temporarily to a newcomer's site (see Ukeeku).

HOWEVER, If Woodshed is including other types of contests, then I patently disagree. Contests that inspire people to 1) write their own songs 2) create tutorials, or 3) use any portion of their creativity are really a beautiful thing. Sometimes it takes a little push for people to get their own creative visions off and running, and a well-designed contest can inspire them to bring out something in themselves that they never knew was there.

Looking at the rest of the list he compiled, I think I am seeing a pattern: Woodshed (Al), doesn't like anything that pushes a storyline of the ukulele being a gimmick or a fad. He sees the ukulele as a serious instrument for a diverse repertoire of styles.

Included (and called bollocks) on the list are a) the myth that it's easy, b) ukuleles in schools, c) ukulele festivals, d) the uke is a primer for the guitar, e) that uke-themed contests are boring, and then some obscure stuff I hadn't actually ever heard (koa is a the best wood? Tenors are supposedly loud? Record labels have been trying or not trying to stop uke covers? Who knew?).

And ukulele competitions, especially ones that are just lotteries, are a gimmick. They are a gimmick for traffic, advertising, and free stuff. I actually agree with Woodshed that they are generally boring blog content, which is probably the main reason I haven't done one, but they can be a good tool for a website to get their name out in the beginning.

Sometimes I do like the chance to win a free uke, but it's the sweat and blood content that keeps me going back.

8 Comments:

Sunday, March 14, 2010

I finally got around to learning one of my favorite songs, Sea of Love by Phil Phillips. This is a classic song that has been covered recently and famously by Cat Power off the Juno soundtrack, but has survived through covers for over 5 decades now.

The ukulele should be in the key of C, which is standard GCEA tuning. I am playing with a concert ukulele, and the GCEA tuning is standard for most soprano and tenor ukes as well. If you are playing with a baritone uke, it may be tuned in G (DGBE) in which case your chords would look different.

Sea of Love Chords

This song has just 4 chords: B flat (Bb), D7, E flat (Eb), and C7. One thing that adds challenge to this as a ukulele song is that each of these are bar chords, which are difficult for the beginner. This is a great song to play to practice your bar chords.

The four chords are played in a loop in that order, each for the same amount of time.

*If you arent ready for bar chords, you can play the song in a different key using the chords G, B7, C, and A7 which are much easier for the beginner uke player.

Sea of Love Strumming Pattern

Strumming patterns are always a bit difficult to nail down, especially on a song that has had so many covers and versions and wasn't originally played on a ukulele or even a guitar. The real key to this song is the lyrics and the melody, so the strumming takes a bit of a backseat. In the original Phil Phillips version, they use a classic 1950s arpeggio, whereas in the Cat Power version they do a much more simple instrumental version with basic strumming.

Having said that, I will offer my own strumming pattern but I encourage you to experiment and see what sounds best to you. The song loops on 8 beats, where each beat is an up or a down strum:

Well, back to answering your uke and other questions! (how come nobody ever asks me relationship or stock trading questions on here?)Hey man,I played your version of Postcards on a Baritone Uke and it sounded pretty good. However, due to the tuning differences from that of a Soprano, it didn't sound completely right. Would this be played differently on a Baritone?Thanks,-Harry

Interesting. I haven't done much with baritone ukes, but my understanding is that they are generally tuned very differently than the standard GCEA concert and soprano ukes. Instead, they are usually tuned in G, which is DGBE.

This means you have two options:

find out the proper chords for the baritone and play those instead. You may have some difficulty with the hammerons, and it will likely sound quite a bit different but be in the right key. http://www.ukulele.nl/chordfinder.php (click on baritone on the middle right side)

(BEST OPTION) Get a capo and put it on the 5th fret of your baritone. It will now have the exact same tuning as a concert or soprano uke in C, and the chords as shown in the video will work exactly the same.

Please let me know how this goes! Getting a capo if you don't have one is a good idea anyway. Allows for some interesting sounds and easy key changes.

okay, so i got my ukulele today and i got it tuned up right and all, but while playing it goes out of tune, and im only playing for like 5-10 minutes tops. what can i doKING DONKEY

Editor's note: Artist's rendition

Hi KING DONKEY,

if you look on the tuning pegs, there should be little screws on the top of each one. Tighten those a bit to keep the peg from slipping out of tune. You may need a smaller-than-normal screwdriver.

Also, the more you paly the more the uke will settle in and require less tuning. In the beginning the strings will need to stretch and settle a bit and the screws will need tightening, etc.

Also, even though the uke wood is sweet sweet delicious good, your pegs will stay tighter if you can keep your gums and maw off them.

Good luck!

I have a question...

I'm wondering if you know what chord this is. (if it is a chord)

I put in a picture of it but if for some reason you can't see it, the layout thing for it is this:

Step one is to click on the tuning you are using over on the right, so either of the C options (soprano C or tenor C). Then click the picture of the ukulele so the yellow dots are where you put your fingers for the chord. Underneath it will say which chords it is, and it isn't necessarily just one. There are so many different kinds of chords out there, a lot of times with only four notes to work with on a uke there will be a lot of overlap.

So your configuration (and you should enter it to test) shows that your chord is both a Csus4 and an Fsus2.

The sus (stands for suspended) chords are beautiful if you are playing them with the right other chords. They work well in place of the standard chord to add a bit of extra emotion and variety without sounding too out of place or changing the key. It may be worth looking into some of the theory if you are interested to learn more about it. Here are a few places with some more info, although some of it is annoyingly technical:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_(music)#Suspended_chords

Congratulations for discovering it on your own, it's cool when what you think sounds interesting turns out to be backed up by music theory (or at least I think it's cool, which might not mean that much actually).

hey mani know you probably get this a million times especially since some dude apparently played this song on a ukulele on american idol or somethingbut Beirut does a great cover of the song Hallelujah and i love it. ukehunt gave me the chords but the strumming is throwing me for a loop.im new to the ukulele had mine less than a month it was a birthday gift from my lady. im loving the hell out of it. and cant stop playing. ukehunt is a great sight but this site excited the hell out of me.to be honest.but the version as im sure you know ishttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnmact0wxNs

i mean im sure you busy so im not asking for like a video really(unless you had the time ha!) but just some pointers on ow he plays/strums this bad boy. im sure he uses hammer ons oo but i can figure that out im sure once im strumming it even remotely lose to correct.

let me know. thanks a lotkeep up the great work. love this all.

carry the fire,-Joshua

I HAVE been getting a lot of requests for this song. I really should learn it I suppose.... but I haven't yet. When I do, I will definitely do a video for it and let you know.... it really is a beautiful song. Maybe too beautiful, I dont want to butcher it too bad.

btw, your lady sounds like a real find!

Hiya,

First of all..thanks for making such great tutorials. You are the best I've found in my many searches. I've learned a lot from you! I was wondering if you have or will you have a tutorial for Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen (Or Jeff Buckley) either the strumming or picking version.. Great song easy chords just the strumming and picking I have trouble with. Any tips on how to become better at strumming??

Thanks!-Rebecca

I don't know if I will be doing Hallelujah, but I have had it requested a few times (see above!) and if I can figure out how to play it I will put up a video...

My advice for strumming: just play every time you get a chance sitting around the house, and keep your left hand on one or two chords and just try to get as many different kinds of sound as you can with your right hand. Strum with one finger, or all your fingers... try to play it like a drum almost. The idea is to condition your hand to hit the strings without it feeling awkward. To remember what strumming was like when you first started, try switching sides and strumming with your left hand. This should feel extremely awkward, and it will serve to remind you how far you've come....

Also: I forgot to tell Rebecca when I emailed her back, but thank you for the kind words! I'm so glad to hear the tutorials have been useful for people... what it really means is that there are lots of people who share some love for good songs and good uking.

Hello there! I'm a Spanish boy, from Madrid, and I've just got to know Beirut's music thanks to a friend like 2 months ago. I like it so so much. As i was lookin for videos on outube i found yours and then thought bout buyin' an ukelele. My doubt, if you could please answer it, is this: which kind of ukelele does he play? is it a sopran, bariton... Thank you so much for it!Jonas

Hi Jonas,

I apologize for the delay in getting back to you, I was hoping to hear directly from the source about what Beirut used for his recordings but I haven't heard back from them (him?) yet.

Apparently they are (relatively) cheap, including one that he plays on stage (the Lanikai Tenor uke) that goes for just $99!

According to the Uke Hunt discussion, he uses all different sizes except the soprano. Tenor, baritone, and concert are all on that list. If I were you, I would stick to Tenor or Concert, because traditionally the tuning for the baritone uke (DGBE) is different than the tuning for standard ukes (GCEA), and Beirut tends to use standard uke tuning (or a close variation of it) in his songs.

I play a Concert uke, and feel like I get a very similar sound. I hope this has helped and is not too late to help with your purchase!

I hope this email finds you well. Thought you might get a kick out of a the brand new “Swine Flu” music video featuring my trusty ukulele :)Swine Flu can be viewed through the following link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exC6uKiHI9I

Not technically a question, but I'm going to allow this. Very cute song and video with high quality sound and production.

I checked out the site and she makes a lot of good songs and even has a service where she writes and records special songs for a special occasions. Very neat entrepreneurial idea. I wonder how much it costs... probably something you find out through the consultation.

Hello, I was wondering what kind of Ukulele you play in your videos. It has a beautiful sound. -Noah

This is probably the question I get asked the most over email and on my youtube channel. I should probably just post it on the main page, but I probably won't. Anyway, I have a Hamano Concert H-100C ukulele.

I will say I have been extremely happy with the purchase. I think it is a great investment to spend a bit more than usual on a solid instrument with a pretty tone. Buy something you can't wait to play!

I just started playing ukulele on my cheap, $13 instrument from a souvenir shop in Hawaii. Day 3 and your YouTube videos have taught me more than the cruddy book I bought to go with it ever did, including Beirut songs! (I've been playing trumpet for 9 years and have wanted to play Postcards from Italy since I first heard it)

whoa, cool. it took me so long to learn those songs i forget some people can actually do it in three days.....

I would LOVE to play Sea of Love and do a video for it. I haven't learned it yet though, but I think it would be a pretty great one to know. It's one of my favorite songs ever. Although I should say, the song I fell in love with the original by Phil Phillips.

When I wrote back to you, I was mixing this song up with another similar song I tried to learn. Basically when i told you it was very difficult I was way wrong: Sea of Love is not hard to play a basic version of. It is just four looping chords (G, B, C, A) played at a steady rhythm.

In terms of a strumming pattern, if I do a video for this one it will likely try to follow the Phil Phillips version's rhythm. I think Cat Power did a very pretty minimalist cover, but man, I love the original.

thanks for writing, reading, uking, loving good musicHello there!:)Thank you for your blog. I have learned so much from you, you are a wonderful teacher. Up here in the cold north, it is really delightful to play on my most beautifull ukulele from Hawaii. It is indeed a wonderful uke. Anyways. I was clicking around on your site and saw a song you really, really wanted to learn: New Slang by The Shins. This is what I found out:

Tune: G-C-E-A Chords: Am/C, F/C, C, G, Am, F Am/C F/C C GGold teeth and a curse for this town were all in my mouth. C Am GOnly, i don't know how they got out, dear.Am/C F/C C GTurn me back into the pet that i was when we met. C Am GI was happier then with no mind-set. CAnd if you'd 'a took to me like F GA gull takes to the wind. CWell, i'd 'a jumped from my tree FAnd i'd a danced like the king of the eyesores GAnd the rest of our lives would 'a fared well.

That's all, thank you for blogging and keep smiling.Hugs from uke-chic, NorwayEir

wow, this is really great, thank you for putting this together! I have been doing less on the site recently (partly so i can focus on making my own music), but i have always wanted to know how to play this song. it's such a beautiful one. big :)

Also: So I told Eir that I would try this out as soon as possible---- and now that I have had a chance..... WTF? This song is fucking impossible for me to learn for some reason. See, this is why there needs to be more tutorial videos out there. I try to play this right now and everything seems wrong, and I can't get the timing, and I don't know how to strum it right, and... and.... why doesn't someone put a video up for this one so I can learn it!?

16 Comments:

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

I hope you've heard this song, Lua by Bright Eyes. Thanks to Jessibee for the heads up on it.

Anyway, it is a nice case study on simplicity with acoustics and excellent song-writing. What can I say but the guy writes a good song. I suspect this one is about being, and being with, a druggie. The mellow mood makes it pretty perfect for the ukulele, although I think a uke and a bass would really do this song right.

The tricky part of this song is just a little bit of fingering on the G chord. It's not too bad, you just have to practice when to press and release one of the strings in the chord. The good news is, once you get that part, the rest will be easy.

TuningThe uke itself is tuned to standard GCEA, but there is a capo on the 2nd fret, which shifts all the chords up one full note. ChordsOnce the capo is on, putting your fingers in the standard C chord position now makes a D chord. I will refer to the chords with the actual chord followed by the non-capo equivalent chord position in parentheses, i.e. D(C). The chords are:D(C), G(F), Em(Dm), Bm(Am), A(G), A7(G7)

Strumming PatternThe strumming pattern loops in 8 beats, where each beat could be considered one up or down strum at a regular rhythm. Strumming pattern:1- down (emphasis on top string)2- miss up3- down (hit all strings, emphasize this beat)4- miss up5- miss down6- up (emphasis on bottom strings)7- down (emphasis on bottom strings)8- up (emphasis on bottom strings)(repeat, switching chords if necessary)

ChorderI don't have my handy-dandy table-maker right now, so I can't make the full table with lyrics yet. In the meantime, I'll break it down by loops of the strumming pattern. The chords in parentheses means each is played for 1/2 of one loop, so everything in the parentheses makes for one loop.

Keep in mind, this is just a guide for now, full description with lyrics coming soon.

12 Comments:

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Me: Two beginning ukulele players (one male, one female) working on songwriting, with basic recording and mixing capability. We are realizing that drums are an essential part of our music and something we currently have neither the equipment nor the basic skills to include in our tracks.

You: Like the music I've mentioned on this blog, and you play the drums or some version of them. You have a way to record drums or percussion along with music from an mp3 track and then send files (of the two together AND eventually of just the drums) over the internets. And you like contests and long walks on the beach.

*****

More detail: Right now Ukulala is a long-distance band. My sister Flora and I live on opposite ends of the country and email music we work on back and forth and mix it around and occasionally have random other people record with us. We basically are looking for somebody out there who wants to have their drums be a part of our music without doing any live shows or actually recording together in the same place. Any percussionist is welcome, although we would prefer that electronic drummers try to sound as natural as possible.

Contest: Since everything on television nowadays is weird reality dating show contests, that's how I'm going to run this. I have put three mp3 files (with links to download) at the bottom of this post. If you think you could add quality drums to ANY ONE (or more) of these, then DO IT and send your completed recording (the original mp3 mixed with the drums) in mp3 format along to me at askukulala@yahoo.com. Please include just a few sentences about your drumming setup and history.

Only the third song (Taken Over) was recorded on a steady beat with a metronome. The others are just freestyle, so if you are using a computer-based system that would be the one to go with.

Feel free to send along more than one option, or drums for both tracks if you would like. Each track will be judged blindly and individually, but versatility is always a virtue and multiple entries in the pool can't hurt your chances.

Judging: The way we judge depends on how many people enter the contest. If there is one person, judging will be easy. If there are more than that, we will probably choose our favorite. If it is close, we MAY put it up online as an internet poll and let THE PEOPLE (that's you!) decide by voting. I am somewhat wary of that because in such a small sample size, someone could skew the vote in their favor just by having lots of loser friends with nothing better to do.

Obviously judging will be very subjective to our tastes and what we want our music to sound like, but I think we will be looking for quality, simplicity, variety, and appropriateness to the musical style. We aren't looking to be a drum-heavy band that drowns the ukulele out with the incessant smashing of loud rock drums. But hey, maybe that would sound awesome..... we won't judge 'til we hear it.

Deadline: I think one month should be more than enough time to get the word out, listen to and download the sample, record something, and send it back in. So the deadline is Thursday, March 12th at midnight.

Prize: Your prize will be to work with us in creating at least our first song to be posted online and possibly in a youtube video. Now, we are just beginners and we do NOT have an audience of "fans", so there is NO notoriety (ZERO, NADA, NONE) involved, but you will be mentioned and linked to at every opportunity for whatever small audience will listen. Make no mistake: this is not a huge prize. You will have to be independently excited for the prospect of making music.

All entries will be posted for everyone to hear once the contest ends, along with your name unless you would like to stay anonymous. If there are lots of entries, I will come up with another more traditional gift or prize for the top 3.

*****

And if you do not play the drums but know someone who does, please send this along! We will judge every entry on merit alone because we want to make awesome music. Children, old people and grotesquely unattractive drummers are all welcome.

Thank you in advance to anyone out there who participates or even thinks real hard about it. Have fun!

Well anyway, I got nothing to do but head home for another infomercial maratho--I, I mean, I mean to go out drinking with my four hot roommates (hi girls!) and party with my rockstar friends. Ladies, I probably won't be back at the mansion until tomorrow so don't worry about locking the gate.

note:This is NOT a political blog, and it never will be. I just want to remind the world of bloggers and blogger-readers that we are now all officially on notice.